Brash confidence will only get you so far

"I WANT to be famous" announced my newest young friend who had come to me for advice.

Someone had told him that I was something of a musician, and, technically, a Chad Morgan impersonator is something of a musician.

Suddenly his mouth started making quite a lot of strange noises, and it eventually dawned on me that he was singing.

When the din stopped, he brightly announced, "Pretty good aren't I? I'm trying out for X Factor this year."

I was speechless.

While he practised some poses in the mirror and outlined his plan to take the Australian music industry by storm, I frantically wondered how to derail his musical ambitions without hurting his feelings, and before he was socially disgraced.

Eventually I said, "Look, if the Chad Morgan impersonation racket is any guide, the music industry can be pretty brutal.

"There are thousands of talented and determined kids out there just like you, do you honestly think you're better than them?"

"Of course," he replied.

I was impressed - the kid had no musical ability whatsoever, but he sure had bucket loads of confidence.

"All right," I said, "hire a voice coach, practise night and day, then try out for X Factor in a couple of years' time."

His shrug indicated that my advice had been dismissed as the half-baked rantings of a musical nobody, which, to be honest, was fairly spot on.

But what I do know is that naked ambition will only get you so far if you don't have the talent to back it up.

Hopefully, he'd learn this before going on TV and getting carved up in front of a laughing crowd because, sadly, not everyone can be as talented, or as good looking, as Chad … and me.